Joi Murugavell
Many Ways Home

Many Ways Home is a deeply personal journey for Joi Murugavell, who was born in Malaysia, spent her early adulthood in New Zealand, lived for twelve years in Australia, and moved to France in 2023.

When asked by ICON Singapore what Many Ways Home means to her, Murugavell responded:

“Home is where I find a logic system that resonates with me—it has never really been a place. So home could be with my pen pal @applecatjam, an artist and teacher based in Taiwan. When I talk to him, I often feel at home, and he has become one of my many ways of feeling at home. That is the best example I can think of to explain ‘Many Ways Home’. There are other explanations floating around in my head, but I don’t yet have the words for them—the kind of words that feel like truth anyway.”

The exhibition was conceived as a kind of labyrinth of memories. Murugavell dedicated a wall of drawings to friends and family from Malaysia and Singapore who attended the opening night, at one point reflecting on how familiar many of the smiling faces felt—sometimes unsure where or when she had first met them, or whether they already knew each other.